Quarterback Jameis Winston lobbied hard for the Buccaneers to sign wideout DeSean Jackson, saying before free agency, "I've met him before, and we want DeSean. You better believe we want DeSean here."
"He has a determination to be great," Jackson told ESPN on Thursday, per FloridaFootballInsiders.com. "It hasn't even been a month since I've been with the Buccaneers and we're going back and forth, texting, talking on the phone, and I can see how hungry he is.
"He wants to win. And not only win, but he wants to bring a championship to Tampa. I think those are the intangibles you want in any young quarterback, but he's a guy that doesn't just talk about that but has the work ethic, too. That's what makes the difference."
What makes Jackson such a promising signing for the Bucs boils down to fit. The pairing of the field-stretching pass catcher with All-Pro Mike Evans gives Tampa a custom-made passing game that should drive opposing cover men insane.
Jackson told ESPN that he and Evans "can dominate together," while saying that he plans to take a visible leadership role, at age 30, akin to how a trio of former Eagles teammates operated when he was a younger player.
"I remember being in Philadelphia," Jackson said, "with Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook and Brian Dawkins and kind of picking their brains and leaning on them and then going to Washington and being that guy that's a little older and expecting other players to be at their best and expecting to get the best out of (them)."
Plenty of teams use free agency to add talented players, only to see those expensive new faces fall short of the hype. Jackson, however, feels like a different story in the making for the emerging Buccaneers.
